The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1887-08-18
A DESPERATE PLUNGE.
A HORRIBLE ACCIDENT ON AN
ILLINOIS RAILROAD

as Many Have Been Wounded-The
Scenes Simply Sickening.
The Chicago Times special from
Forest, Ill, says:
All the railway horrors in the his
tory of this country were surpassed
three miles east of Chatsworth last
night, when an excursion on the Tole-
do, Peoria & Western Railroad drop
ped through a burning bridge and ov-
er one hundred people were killed
and four times that number, more or
less, badly injured.
The train was composed of six sleep
ing cars, six day coaches and chair
cars. 1t was carrying
NINE HUNDRED AND SIXTY PAssEN-
all excursionists, and was bound for
Niagara Falls. The tram had been
made up all along the line of the Tol-
edo, Peoria & Western road, and the
excursionists hailed from various
points in central Illinois, the bulk of
them, however, coming from Peoria.
Some of the passengers came from
Canton, Ell Paso, Washington and, l.:
fact, all stations along the line, some
from as far west as Burlington and
Keokuk, Iowa.
Special and cheap rates had been
made by the excursion and all sorts
of people took advantage of it.
When the train drew out of Peoria
at 8 o'clock last evening, it was load
ed to its utmost capacity. Every
berth in six sleepers was taken and
the day coaches carried sixty people
each. The train was so heavy that
two engines were hitched to it, and
when it passed this place it was an
hour and half behind time Chats
worth, the next station east of here, is
six miles off, and the run there was
made in seven minutes, so
TERRIBLE WAS THE MOMENTUM
of those fifteen coaches and two en-
gines shooting through space at the
rate of mile minute No stop was
made at Chatsworth, and on the
heavy train with its living freight
sped through the darkness of the
lliItS cdSL VI AndtS-
worth there is little slough, and
where the railroad crosses a dry run
about ten feet deep and fifteen feet
wide. Over this place there
was stretched an ordinary wooden
trestle bridge, and as the excursion
train came laundering down on it,
what was the horror of the engineer
on the front engine, when he saw that
the bridge was burning. Right up
before his eyes leaped the bright flames
and the next instant he was among
them. There was no chance to stop.
Had there been any warning it would
have taken half a mile to stop, and
the train was hundred yards within
the red-tongued messenger of death,
before they flashed their fatal signals
into the engineers face. But he
passed over in safety, the first engine
keeping the rails As it went over the
bridge fell beneath it, and it could
only have been the terrific speed of
the train that saved the life of the en-
gineer and his fireman. But the next
engine went down and instantly the
deed of death was done.
Car crashed into car, coaches piled
one on top of another, and in the
twinkling of an eye nearly one hun
dred people found instant death, and
fifty more were so hurt that they could
not live. As for the wounded they
were everywhere only the sleeping
coaches escaped, and as startled and
half-dl essed passengers came tumbling
out of them they found such scene
of death as is rarely witnessed, and
such work to do that it seemed as il
human hands were utterly incapable
of it.
1t lacked but five minutes of mid
night. Down in the ditch lay the sec.
ond engineer, McClintock, dead, and
his fireman, Applegate, badly injured.
On top were piled three baggage cars,
one'on top of another, like child s
cardhouse after he had swept it with
his hand Then comes six day coach
es. They were telescoped as cars new
er were before, and three of them were
pressed into just space enough for one
The second car had mounted off it.
trucks, crashed through the car ahead
of it, crushing the woodwork aside
like tinder, and lay there resting OF
the tops of the seats, while every pass
enger in the front car was lying deac
and dying underneath. Out of tha
car but four people came alive. On
top of the second car lay the third and
although the latter did not cover it
bearer as completely as the one be
meath, its bottom was.
sMEARED WITH THE BLOOD OF IT:
VICTIMS.
The other three cars were not 81
badly crushed, but they were broker
and twisted in every conceivable way
and every crushed timber and bean
represented a crushed human fran,
and broken bone.
Instantly the air was filled with th'
cries of the wounded and the shriek
of those about to die. The groans o
! men and the screams of women unit
ed to make an appalling sound, and
| above all, could be heard agonizin.
cries of little children as in some in
stances they lay beside their dea'
par rents and there was
ANoTH Err TERRIBLE DANGER
yet to be met. The bridge was still
burning and the wrecked cars wer
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